Whew! That was close!
We have good news for California taxpayers and bad news for movers.
The California legislature was considering a bill that would have provided universal healthcare for everyone in California regardless of immigration status (working title of the bill: "Latin America, Start Your Engines!").
We wrote about the bill here, predicting:
"Providing healthcare for everyone in Latin America, and elsewhere, who can afford to come to California isn’t going to be cheap, that’s for certain. Master of understatement Walczak predicts, "Practically doubling state taxes — even if the burden is partially offset through state-provided health coverage — could send taxpayers racing for the exits.
"That’s because going to the hospital is not an annual event, whereas paying taxes is."
The net effect of passing the bill on California residents would have been the equivalent of pouring boiling water on an anthill.
Fortunately for California residents who are makers, rather than takers, there weren’t enough crazy people in the legislature to pass the bill.
Calif. Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-Dist. 27, issued a news release vowing to fight on for more oppressive taxes, "It became clear that we did not have the votes necessary for passage, and I decided the best course of action is to not put AB 1400 for a vote today. Although the bill did not pass the Assembly by today’s deadline, this is only a pause for the single-payer movement."
The Tax Foundation ran the numbers on the bill and found it would take more than a band-aid to cure its flaws.
Fox Business found, "A recent analysis from the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan group that generally advocates for lower taxes, found that the proposed constitutional amendment would increase taxes by roughly $12,250 per household in order to fund the government-funded health care system. In all, the tax increases were designed to raise an additional $163 billion per year, which is more than California raised in total tax revenue any year before the pandemic."
Which is why the failure of the bill will be a blow to moving companies' bottom lines.
The bill’s collapse takes some of the "escape-pressure" off residents.
We think the failure was a positive development and restored a smidgen of confidence in the mental capacity of the legislature as a whole.
However, don’t overlook the implied threat in Assemblyman Kalra’s statement.
He and the other true believers are as fanatical as ever.
And speaking of true believers, we’ll close with the California Nurses Association — evidently composed of people who don’t know they pay taxes — which was boiling mad after the bill failed. "Nurses condemn this failure by elected representatives to put patients above profits, especially during the worst surge of COVID-19 yet, at a time when it’s more clear than ever before that healthcare must be a right, not just a privilege for those who can afford it."
Based on that, our advice to California patients is don’t take your nurses’ word for anything. Wait until the doctor shows up.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.